Sextant

Description:Take a primus stove, a safety razor and some brass hinges. Mix them with a healthy dose of German ingenuity and you've got the makings of a nifty navigational tool.

Questions for students

Explore some of the technical or unfamiliar terms in this Tale. Use the 'Words' response template to record words, meanings, derivations and other words with similar origins or meanings.

Respond to the Tale as a war story that reflects this time in New Zealand's history. Use details about the roles of the two German servicemen.

How do you think the Germans came to be prisoners of war in New Zealand? Select two or three questions you have about why, when, where and how war prisoners were kept in New Zealand. Use the 'Key questions' response template as you seek answers, using the Tale and other sources for information.

What has and has not changed about the instruments used by sailors? Research this, comparing old and new navigational instruments.

Wartime exploits are sometimes seen differently over time. Compare the way Walter von Zatorski and the 'swashbuckling' Commander are portrayed in this Tale. Have attitudes to prisoners of war on all sides changed over time? Give examples and reasons.